A Look at the Inner Workings of Swedish Healthcare

For my last class with DIS, I’ve been taking Public Health Policy in Practice. It’s extremely enlightening about all the problems that policymakers have to face when crafting and distributing healthcare. We’ve learned about topics such as health economics, Swedish politics, and migration. This course is designed to teach us about making public health policies, and how it differs between the U.S, Sweden, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

The class went on a Healthy Cities Walk the first day, which I, unfortunately, couldn’t go on due to being sick. We also went to the Mediterranean Museum after learning about migration and the current situation in Syria. There is an exhibition featuring objects from Syrian refugees in Sweden, and the personal stories attached to them. It was a very touching exhibition, and we also had time to walk around the rest of the museum.

The class is interesting, and our DIS faculty member, Rachel, is great. She is supportive of our contributions to class discussions and knows a lot about healthcare in Sweden. We’ve also had some guest speakers come in to talk to us about Swedish politics and abortion. One day, when it was particularly beautiful and warm, we got to have our discussion outside.

All three of my courses have been a slightly different discipline surrounding health. This was good for me, as I was able to witness different health careers and continue the process of figuring out my future career. My first course, Human Health and Disease: A Clinical Approach, was oriented towards pre-med students and other health careers that work closely with people. My second course, Medical Biotechnology and Drug Development, dealt with the pharmaceutical industry. And now, I’m learning about health policies and public health providers.

It’s nice to bring knowledge from previous courses to my current course. I can draw upon my knowledge of doctor-patient relationships and how pharmacies work to aid in my learning of the healthcare system. There is a wide variety of careers that involve health work, and it’s amazing that I have this opportunity to learn about them.